


count your ways

by elbatross



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Sleepy Charles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 01:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/591875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elbatross/pseuds/elbatross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the morning, at night, or even years later, they always have time to examine the ways they're impossible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“You’ve got this way,” Erik starts, brushing away messy hair from Charles’s brow, “when you're in the sunlight, of making yourself look entirely too impossible. It’s in the curl of your hair after a long night or the mess of freckles from a long and hot summer.”  
Charles can’t hear him, of course. He’s too far gone in his own dreams to hear the little poems Erik composes when he’s up too early and doesn’t want to get out of bed. Erik decided long ago that it didn’t matter and was probably best that he didn’t hear it anyhow.

“When you sleep so peacefully, I often wonder what it is in your dreams that keeps you. What is it about them that makes you want that world over this enough to grumble for another moment with them? You’re in no need of fortune, nor are you in need of fame, and you’ve got all the love man could ever want waiting for you when you wake.” He tucks a lock of dark hair behind an ear, noting the faint stubble on Charles’s cheek and smiling. It’s red, just like his own, a simple little novelty that never seems to lose it’s amusement for Erik. 

“When you do wake, I’d like you to know that I’m fond of your impossible way, from the red of your lips to the sleepy blues of your eyes.” Charles’s eyes start to open as if on cue, slightly bloodshot with the strains of a long night without enough sleep.

“Erik, it’s hardly past seven,” he rasps out, reaching to curl his hand around the back of Erik’s neck to pull him in closer. “Please go back to sleep, darling.” Their legs tangle beneath the sheets as Charles inches closer to press a sleepy, chaste kiss to his lips. 

“…and that even when you are still entranced by your dreaming and it still seems impossible, I love the way you take time for me.” It’s little more than a mumble and earns nothing more than an approving hum from Charles, but it hardly matters. What does is the warm and tired little curl around his thoughts trying to pull him in as if he is supposed to take up residence right next to Charles’s heart, a signal that while Charles isn’t entirely up for words without proper sleep and coffee, he’s taken notice to Erik’s attempts at affection.

Charles shuffles, sighs, and finally buries his head into Erik’s shoulder before settling back into his slumber. Erik gives a final gaze over his features in the early morning light before settling in with him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles is a little different by moonlight.

“You’ve got this way, when in the moonlight, of nearly leaving me without words. My mind fills up with too many not to let them out.” 

They’re in bed, finally finished with strategies for the attack against Shaw and all the children in their own rooms. For once, the bed’s not stripped for the sheets to be replaced. Tonight’s been too exhausting for such activities on it’s own, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t stripped to their underthings anyhow. Still, it’s a strange way for Erik to start any conversation, Charles thinks, even if it is reminiscent of a sleepy Tuesday morning from weeks ago. He keeps quiet about it, wanting to listen as intently as he can while Erik’s projecting gentle desire.

“It’s something in your gaze that makes me say them, and when you can’t watch me,” Erik brings up a hand to cover Charles’s eyes, _“I think it. Sometimes I wish that you’d ask me to give you such blindness just so I can live in your mind as you do in mine, if only for a moment. It’s a beautiful place, and yet you hardly ever share what’s inside aside from a thought or two. Such a shame.”_ The thought is punctuated with a kiss to the corner of Charles’s mouth, then a clear request to put a blindfold over his eyes. He knows what follows and shifts with a bit of excitement, sending off a mental nod of approval and biting his lip.

The blindfold itself is made of a nice silk upon Erik’s insistence, something about not wanting to chafe Charles’s skin even though they both know Erik’s stubble counteracts the point entirely. Still, he gives him what he wants and lets the man put it on him before shifting him to lie flat on the bed. Charles remains quiet, hearing the starts of new verses on the edges of Erik’s mind waiting to be fully formed. He hardly heard it that morning, whatever was said coming at his weary mind in shapes and swirls of emotion more than anything, but he wants to know what Erik has to say about him this time. Erik never says much that isn’t a tease, critique, or minute phrase of praise, but he’s surprisingly tactile both mentally and physically when he wants to be with the right level of privacy.

Charles wants it all, from the brush of their minds or the press of Erik’s lips to his throat at the very moment. His breath catches as Erik continues.

 _“It’s impossible to want another man so much, or to have another who matches so well that I feel as though we’ve been separated by a long journey since birth, just meeting again after our absence from one another. This way about you draws me in and brings me home again.”_ Erik’s lips pause just below Charles’s rib cage to glance up, projecting the image of him back. He’s lovely, Erik thinks, his cheeks and lips rosy and skin reddened or bruised by the beginnings of a beard, the edge of teeth, or lips. _“I almost can’t stand to look at you some days, for fear that I might lose myself trying to become that better man you’d like me to be and drive you off. For while you have your own impossible way that I love you for, I have my own way too, and you find me impossible.”_ He continues to kiss down the length of Charles’s body, pushing the waistband of his boxers down enough to expose the jut of his hips a little better. Erik kisses the line of the bone before grazing his lips against the spot, smirking faintly when Charles gasps above him and reaches to curl his fingers a hint too tightly into his hair.

“A-and I love you for it, too,” he answers, trembling a little at Erik’s attentions. Half of the problem lies in the projections that accompany the sensations of lips on his skin, all of them violent with want of a different color than lust. Charles can read what Erik wants, and he wants it too for the most part, but some of it leaves him uneasy as always. He sighs shakily as the thoughts that overstimulate his mind settle to something softer as Erik rests against his hip. They seem to come to an agreement that Charles has no reason to stop carding his fingers through Erik’s hair. The blindfold remains in place, one of Erik’s hands moving to rest on the opposite hip.

“And even in knowing this, there will be a time when your way and my way are too conflicting to ignore. Even in those times, I will cherish when we once agreed without seeing eye to eye, because for that moment I shared your mind.” Erik’s voice is just above a whisper, his mind starting down a road of conflict as to what to do once they got to the point of capturing Shaw. His goals and Charles’s are too different, and no matter what they said or how they bargained, something wouldn’t turn out right. A foreign tug interrupts his pondering and brings his attention back to Charles, leading him back up to his lips for a reassuring kiss.

“Then we’ll work something out, Erik. We’ve still got time, and I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you, for that matter.” He works off the blindfold and helps Erik settle into bed, taking his turn to ease him with soft kisses to the shoulders and nips to his jaw. They press close together as Erik gets the light with little more than a thought, the glow of the moon slipping in between the curtains to catch Charles’s shoulder in a beam of its light.

“You’ve got this way in the moonlight of wanting so much more of me than I think I can give you, but I love you too much to want to fault you for it.”


End file.
